Garden Notes

Three Japanese beetles on "Date Night"

I have a lot of Japanese beetles in my yard and I have been using the beetle traps to catch them. I am astounded at how many beetles there are in my neighborhood. Recently I read an article that said you could hand pick beetles and put them into soapy water to kill them. Since there were a lot of beetles ignoring my traps, I decided to try that idea.

I filled my small bowl half full of water and a bit of dish detergent, took a small stick and went out to look for beetles. I started with the roses and found a few chewing up the rose blossoms. When I tried to poke them into the bowl, a lot of times they just flew away. Another defensive trick they used was to simply drop off the leaf and disappear. Other times they hung on to the leaf so tight that I couldn’t dislodge them in time and once again, they flew away. After a bit of trial and error, I found that a scissors worked the best for me in collecting beetles.

When I find a beetle, I carefully hold the bowl beneath the leaf or bloom they are sitting on and try push them toward the bowl. If they drop, they land in my bowl. If they refuse to let go, I cut off the leaf or bloom behind them and the whole thing falls into the bowl along with the beetle. Also, important to this process is the soap. It makes a big difference, because soap makes the beetles die pretty quickly. Without soap, they keep swimming around trying to crawl out. I also found that it was very satisfying to come into the house with a bowl full of beetles and flush them down to a watery grave.

Last night I got home about 6:30 and already from the driveway I could see beetles eating my roses. I got my bowl of soapy water and went out into the yard to collect them.

It was a weird night. I found a few solitary beetles, but most of them were clumped into groups of 3-8 beetles. Now, I know this is the mating season for Japanese beetles and that it’s already September. Probably time is running out for beetles to find a partner, but I as I found one beetle clump after another I just kept thinking “Wow – This Must be Date Night!”

Japanese Beetle Update